Penrose e



P. E. CHAPMAN AND R. H. ROBINSON.

VARIABLY PITCHED' AND ACTUATED BELL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 29.1915.

Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

@W b y UNITED STATES PATENT onrion- PEN'RIOSE E. CHAPMAN AND ROLAND HARRY ROBINSON, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI; SAID ROBINSON ASSIGNOR T0 SAID CHAPMAN.

VARIABLE PITCHED AND ACTUATED BELL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

Application filed July 29, 19 15. Serial No. 42,662.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, PnNRosE E. CHAP MAN and ROLAND HARRY ROBINSON, both citizens of the United States, State of Mis souri, city of St. Louis, (whose post-office addressses are N. E. corner 10th and Walnut streets, same city,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Variably Pitched and Actuated Bells, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

It is applicable to any form of bell and mechanisms, be it a simple bell with a loose clapper actuated by hand or otherwise, an electric bell actuated by an electric mechanism, a mechanical bell actuated by any suitable form of mechanical striking de vice, or electromechanical bell in which the mechanical striking device is controlled electrically.

The object of our invention is to produce a bell which may be readily changed from one pitch to another so that the sound of individual bells even when banked together can readily be distinguished, thus making it necessary to carry a stock of only one type i of bell to meet all the various conditions,

and to make it cheaper than installing different styles of bells.

In the figure is a general view of an ordinary electrical bell fitted with our device.

The character 1 is the hell, 2, 2, 2", 2 are loading weights which are required to changethe pitch of said hell, 3 is the hammer, 4L and 4 are the loading weights with which the hammer is supplied for changing the speed of its oscillation, 5 are actuating electromagnets, 6 is an armature oscillated by these magnets, 7 is a contact spring, 7' is the retractable spring mounting the armature 6, 7 is an adjusting stop retained in place by screw 7 for the purpose of adjusting the effective length of the spring 7 thus changing its characteristics, 8 is the back contact of a circuit breaker, 9 is a condenser applied across said circuit breaker.

In this application load or loading is not only intended to apply to any extra weights which may be applied to the resonator but also to the actual material of the said resonator, thus a bell may have a load applied near its edge at certain points, or this load may be simply a larger portion of the said bell, as a lump cast on it, as an apron punched on it as in Fig. 1 or simply a removable projection of some other kind as a screw.

To accomplish this end we prefer to form the bell or resonant member with weights attached to its vibrating portion 1'. 6., the rim in the case of a hell, by means of a narrowed neck with sufliciently small area to be readily bent or nipped ofi with a pair of pliers, but still of sufficient area for rigidity, per manency and immovability, this is illustrated in the drawings where 1 is a bell, 2, 2'

2 2 are the weights attached by a narrowed neck as shown, it will be seen that a bell so loaded will be of a comparatively low pitch when the Weights are attached, and, owing to the small narrow character of the neck the weights can very readily be broken off. The bell will immediately increase in pitch, further the tone of the bell will be altered by the position of the weights, with reference to point of actuation 2'. 6., point of striking the gong, if the weights are at the nodal points of the bell which have practically neutral vibration they will have less effect than if they are at the point of impact, therefore the mere rotation of the hell with its load, will change the tone thereof. This can be further accentuated by asymmetrically loading the bell, preferable results are obtained in this case by simply loading on two opposite sides, when there will be considerable variety in the tone, and tone quality of the bell as it is struck at different points on the circumference, four point loading does not produce quite so great variety as loading at two points, loading at one point will produce a great variety of tones, but the tone of the resonator is not so pleasing.

The same method of loading may be used for the hammer. f and 4 are the loading weights, by cutting off these weights, various speeds of stroke can be obtained. By making these loads of different weights a still greater variety of speeds of vibration can be obtained, for instance in the drawing we show numeral 4 as a heavy weight compared to 4 this will give four possible vibration speeds with this hammer, first speed with all weights on will be slow, second speed cutting on 4:, third speed leaving l on and cutting OH 42 will be still faster, fourth speed with l and 4 both oii'.

As the weights are made with an extra small neck they may be cut ofi with an ordinary pair of pliers.

The retractile power obviously can also be altered as is diagrammatically shown in Fig. 1 where 7 is the r'etractile spring mounting armature 6 and 7" is an adjustable clip retained by screw 7 in such a manner that it can be set to press against spring 7 at dilferent points thus changing the active length and incidentally the stiffness of said spring7, it will be seen that these changes are very readily made, and that with the combination either in whole or in part of the adjustable features shown a great variety of different sounds can be obtained from any one type of these bells, as many different pitches can be obtained from the gongs as there are buttons to be cut 011', they may again be made of different sizes so their selection will give more different pitches, or the gong may be turned to present differently loaded portions to the hammer which will produce still different tones, the hammer itself may be differently loaded to produce different speeds of vibration, so that a bell may be constructed which may be changed to produce a great variety of sounds.

As the burning of the contacts is sometimes great especially in large bells, we add a condenser across this contact to take up the spark.

Ourdevice in principle can be used in a number of other ways, we have deemed that the methods shown are sufficient to disclose the invention, but we do not wish to limit our invention to those shown, nor to loading of bells only, other resonating devices such as rods, gongs, forks, tubes, etc, may be treated in a similar manner, and used for similar purposes, all of these devices are simply a variation in form of resonating devices, of which the bell is the commonest type. \Ve have selected the bell for illustration.

We claim.

1. In a resonating sound producing device the combination with the resonating portions of said device of weights rigidly at tached to the said resonating portions said attaching points being of weakened cross section at their juncture to permit of ready removal.

2. In a bell the combination of resonating portions of said bell with weights attached thereto by a severable neck, said weights be ing so proportioned that their removal produces definite pitch changes.

3. In a bell the combination of its resonating portion with weights attached thereto by a narrowed neck or waist in a manner to permit of readily severing at the said narrowed portion.

4-. In a vibratory sound producing device, the combination of a resonator adjustably loaded with weights attached to the said resonator by means of a severable neck, and a vibratory striking mechanism having a striking hammer adjustably loaded with weights attached to said hammer by means of a severable neck.

5. In a vibratory sound producing device the combination with a resonator of a striking mechanism having its hamme loaded with a plurality of weights, rigidly but re- -movably attached by means of a' neck to allow of removal.

6. In a bell, the combination of a bell with a hammer having weights attached to said hammer by means of a' severable neck for changing the periodicity of the said hammer.

7. In a vibratory sound producing device the combination of a resonator with asymmetrical loading, that the said resonator may produce different tones when actuated or struck atdifferent points.

8. In a vibratory sound producing device the combination of a resonator with asymmetrical proportions that the said resonator may produce different tones when actuated or struck at ditl'erent points.

9.'In a vibratory sound producing device the combination of an asymmetrical resonator with an actuating device having a hammer, said hammer having means for adjusting the time constant of its vibration.

In testimony whereof we have signed our namesto this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

PENROSE E. CHAPMAN. ROLAND HARRY ROBINSON.

Witnesses 2 JUSTINE E. KossMAN, E. F. SEIDLER.

Copies 01' this patent may be obtained. forfive cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. I 

